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Time to app for next card, or not quite yet?

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Anonymalous
Valued Contributor

Re: Time to app for next card, or not quite yet?


@uncredited wrote:

@AnonymalousI wouldn't qualify for Navy, but I supposed with Pen I could be open to any option.  That requires opening a transaction account though, right?  Maybe a last resort.


Yes, to join a credit union, you have to become a member. This typically (universally?) requires opening a savings account. The first $5 deposited (or $20, or whatever -- it's a token amount) is your ownership share in the institution, and will be inaccessible as long as you're a member.

 

Since credit unions are member-owned, they tend to be less profit-seeking than banks. This has up and downsides. A few of the upsides are their rates are usually lower, including loans and credit card APRs, they usually see helping people with credit problems as part of their mission and thus provide products and education to aid them, and they tend to take fewer risks (fewer CUs than banks had problems during the Great Recession). The downside is they're not necessarily as aggressive or competitive when it comes to things like mobile apps or other bits of new technology, rewards, or SUBs (though there are exceptions). They tend to be relationship-oriented, so your chances are likely to increase as your membership ages, and when you open multiple products with them (e.g. checking as well as savings), and things like setting up direct deposit.

 

Local credit unions are good, but it can be hard to find DPs about them online. It's easier to find DPs about most of the major national ones (Navy, PenFed, Langley, Andrews, Alliant, etc.), though that may come at the cost of a local branch (though if they use the Co-Op network's shared branch service, you may be able to do most of your in-person banking at the branches of another CU in the network).

 

Credit card rewards tend to unexciting for the most part, though most of the "unicorn" cards, like those from AOD and Affinity, are issued by CUs. But CUs tend to offer much lower APRs on their cards, and have a wider array of secondary features, like all the VISA/MC benefits, and lower fees. And as @Who_wuda_thought mentioned, some have farmed out their credit card business to Elan, and are offering the Max Cash Preferred and Everyday Cash+ (knock offs of US Bank's Cash+ and Altitude Go, respectively). But in that case you're dealing with Elan, which is a subsidiary of US Bancorp, and thus a sister company to US Bank. The underwriting of small local CUs can sometimes be very conservative, though some CUs can be very generous. They often focus on different things than banks, like an increased emphasis on DTI.

 

I'm not really arguing for or against, just providing a basic summary of their features, and some strengths and weaknesses. Personally, I think the strongest case for joining a credit union is people who think they might take out a major loan in the future, like a mortgage or a car loan.

Message 131 of 334
uncredited
Frequent Contributor

Re: Time to app for next card, or not quite yet?

@Who_wuda_thoughtYeah, people had mentioned the CU's in my original thread, but the one thing I wasn't comfortable with was opening a deposit account with an FI for the sole purpose of getting a CC.  I wouldn't necessarily rule out anything overall, but in terms of order of preference I don't think I'd put it near the top if alternatives exist.  I don't know that the Walmart card is the ideal option largely because it means forcing a shift in spend from my preferred store, and because it will conflict with the benefits of (and maybe the store's part of the preferential selection of) the Amazon Chase card.  But since I don't even know when that card might be (or if it ever will be?) Walmart surely can't hurt.  With a cap1 prequal in the running.... it does give me a path.  I'm still not sure if it's the path I want, but any path is a path.

 

If I prequal for Walmart I probably prequal for a Savor flavor as well. Rewards wise I'm not sure which would be better there.  Savor's one of those "fits me more than 90% of cards but still doesn't quite fit" cards that I often toy with putting on the list.  I didn't run prequal on it but I could.   If I were to guess though, I'm betting both walmart and savor would end up in the "good credit" bucket....  Since they're the only one offering prequal it's screaming "bucket" "for good credit version" to me.

 

I probably would qualify for Amazon store card if I ALMOST qualified for Chase. But.... not reporting as a bankcard doubtfully does any favors at all for me. Plus Sync, so it has two strikes.

 

And again, I can't really app for weeks or a month since I'm waiting for the higher CL to report.  Maybe Amex opens up again or doesn't in that time. Maybe FNBO does (doubt it since they never favored me while Amex did.) I'll of course check them all again.  What I do know right now is that out of all the options I've had on my list, only Cap1 (either wmt or maybe savor) are showing a favorable prequal result.

 

All that having been said, unless the prequal results change in a month or two for the others, Cap1 might be the only open road right now. But I still feel like I need to have an understanding and plan of what I should be doing or planning in terms of Chase and FNBO regardless of how Cap1 turns out.  And I know I can't afford to waste any more inquiries (for years?) so things have to be pretty good bets.  I'm not quite sure how I'm in a worse footing than 5 months ago despite doing everything by the book, but....here I am Smiley Frustrated

 

In a month my accounts will be 18mo by date (19mo on report), 5mo by date (6mo on report.)  Maybe something will change somewhere.   The CU option is a good back burner option to have though. Evnen though I'd prefer not opening a bunch of bank accounts just to apply for CCs! 

Message 132 of 334
Anonymalous
Valued Contributor

Re: Time to app for next card, or not quite yet?


@uncredited wrote:

@Who_wuda_thoughtYeah, people had mentioned the CU's in my original thread, but the one thing I wasn't comfortable with was opening a deposit account with an FI for the sole purpose of getting a CC. 


I wouldn't do that, either. There are a good number of MyFICOer's who are members of half a dozen CUs just to access their cards, but I prefer to be more restrained. I am a fan of CUs, and think they have real advantages over banks in certain areas, but I prefer to pick one or two I think are good long-term relationships to develop.

Message 133 of 334
uncredited
Frequent Contributor

Re: Time to app for next card, or not quite yet?

@Anonymalous Yeah, I'd like to get established with a CU at some point in general for those reasons. Though mixing it with the credit app process is probably too many account things going to to handle all at once. Certainly useful as a last resort though

 

The sad thing is there's very few cards I find valuable on terms of rewards. The travelers are all clamoring over dozens of beneficial cards. For me, a 2%, a retailers card (Amazon), the ws card, maybe a grocery card. In theory the PayPal card but sync isn't with dealing with to save one extra percent though a backup 2% can't hurt if I ever get hit by a random closing. Amex for their plan it. That's basically it. Anything else is just so have cards on the file and to have more tools to spend on should one get declined (speaking of Walmart, them maxing my disco with repeating erroneous authorization charges when I only had 1600 cl probably helped me get my first auto cli lol)

 

The Walmart one isn't markedly useful but it's less useless than most others everyone else desires Smiley Happy. Even that elan card..I never really calculate the savings add up to much for my organic spend.

 

The funniest thing is one of the most useful "extra" cards is custom cash. That's a neat card I wouldn't mind having, and could probably easily get with the existing Citi relationship.... But I'm cautious about 2 cards with one lender until I get some thickness on the file. Something goes wrong and you lose half your file

Message 134 of 334
Kforce
Valued Contributor

Re: Time to app for next card, or not quite yet?


@uncredited wrote:

 

The sad thing is there's very few cards I find valuable on terms of rewards.

Then stop looking at 3rd and 4th tier cards

 

For me, a 2%, a retailers card (Amazon), the ws card, maybe a grocery card.

Wait a few months and get one of the cards that is best for your spend, it will happen.

Sit for 3 months and go for the WS/FNBO

Message 135 of 334
uncredited
Frequent Contributor

Re: Time to app for next card, or not quite yet?

Interesting coincidence, I got a quicksilver prequalify mailer today. Haven't seen one of those in a while, and it's not related to doing the Walmart prequal yesterday which wouldn't have got a mailer the next day.  It's 26.49% and 0% into, which means it's the "excellent" credit certain prequal, at the top of it's interest range  (but the sub is missing.) 

 

Obviously I'm not looking at QS, but that tells me cap1 sees me outside their buckets for savor and wmt presumably. Which is surprising.  Plus it means I'm getting into the mailer loop again.

 

@KforceI like your plan because it's the only one suggested with any kind of timeline. So that means you don't think thickening the file with easier cards would be wise before tackling fnbo and chase?

 

And Is 3 months based on a particular thing or just kind of a round "probably good" number?

 

 Fwiw those third tier cards tend to offer more useful rewards for my spend than most tier1 cards so I'll probably end up with some eventually anyway. Tbh 5% Walmart, 3% PayPal etc is more practical, rewards wise, than if Chase and amex threw a csr and platinum my way with no fee.... But the banks are better.... Smiley Happy

 

 

Message 136 of 334
Who_wuda_thought
Frequent Contributor

Re: Time to app for next card, or not quite yet?

@uncredited 

Re: the C1 mailers....I got the QS mailers with the same offer type as the one you got (0% offer/9 mos, no sub) for the first few months (when my single only card was 5-11 mos), then the QS mailers I got after that were the $150 sub/0% for 14 mos.

Scores as of March 6, 2024:




Message 137 of 334
Anonymalous
Valued Contributor

Re: Time to app for next card, or not quite yet?


@uncredited wrote:

Interesting coincidence, I got a quicksilver prequalify mailer today. Haven't seen one of those in a while, and it's not related to doing the Walmart prequal yesterday which wouldn't have got a mailer the next day.  It's 26.49% and 0% into, which means it's the "excellent" credit certain prequal, at the top of it's interest range  (but the sub is missing.) 

 

Obviously I'm not looking at QS, but that tells me cap1 sees me outside their buckets for savor and wmt presumably. Which is surprising.  Plus it means I'm getting into the mailer loop again.

 

 


I started getting offers for the Capital One Savor One last month. Compare the current public offers with my offer:

  • Good credit version: 26.99% APR, no 0% APR period or cash SUB
  • Excellent credit version: 16.49-26.49% APR, 0% APR for 15 months, $200 SUB ($500 spend/3 months)
  • My offer: 26.24% APR, 0% APR for 9 months, no mention of a cash SUB

Like yours, the APR falls within the range of the excellent credit version, but mine is a whopping 0.25% better than the max. And it does have a 0% APR period, it's just shorter. And no mention of a cash SUB.

 

Capital One is weird. They number of variations of their cards that they publicly offer is confusing enough, but they clearly have even more variations that they hide behind targeted offers. Ours both fall in between the good and excellent tiers.

 

Not sure what that means when it comes to bucketing, but it's clearly not the lowest bucket.

Message 138 of 334
Anonymalous
Valued Contributor

Re: Time to app for next card, or not quite yet?


@Who_wuda_thought wrote:

@uncredited 

Re: the C1 mailers....I got the QS mailers with the same offer type as the one you got (0% offer/9 mos, no sub) for the first few months (when my single only card was 5-11 mos), then the QS mailers I got after that were the $150 sub/0% for 14 mos.


You weren't a Cap1 customer, were you? That's interesting, because my first card was from Cap1, and I only started seeing the offers last month (just before it aged to 14 months).

 

That either means Cap1 treats potential new customers better than existing customers (not a surprise, given how phones and utilities work), or they consider the Savor One slightly more premium than the QS. (I assume they didn't offer me the QS because I already have one.)

Message 139 of 334
Who_wuda_thought
Frequent Contributor

Re: Time to app for next card, or not quite yet?

@Anonymalous @uncredited 

To both....keep in mind...when those mailers were printed some weeks ago prior to distribution, Cap1's interest rates were slightly lower, so they aren't going to match up to the current prevailing interest rate published on their website.  As rates continue to rise, this will be ongoing.

Scores as of March 6, 2024:




Message 140 of 334
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